A Bristol Tour 2006

Further Info

This story was made at a four day workshop for artists interested in facilitating Bristol Stories workshops. The theme was “Maps and journeys”.

The workshop was led by Aikaterini Gegisian and Liz Milner and was supported by Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives.

Transcript

I love walking around central Bristol and exploring its old nooks and crannies. It inspired me to compile a photographic tour of the city to send to family in Canada. In 1912 Edie and Mabel Shortman emigrated to Saskatchuan, later joined by their sister Nellie. They left behind their parents, five sisters and a brother.

I have written to my second cousin, Lois, since we were children, and although in 2005 she and her family managed a brief holiday to England and a big family reunion, they did not have time to visit Bristol itself.

I started the tour at the eastern edge of the old city at the church of St Philip and Jacob. This was where John Shortman married Lucy Michel in 1793, when Bristol was a lot smaller than its is now. It goes without saying that my Canadians are really into family history. I then headed to Castle Park and the old city. I continued from the Centre, which the girls would have used in those days of tram travel, and took photographs around the docks. then on to the Central Library where I work, and views from Brandon Hill, before taking in Hotwells, the SS Great Britain, Clifton Suspension Bridge, and the gateway to the Atlantic which the girls crossed over ninety years ago.

Credits

All media not otherwise credited created by the story author, or permission obtained, used under copyright licence.